Our warmest congratulations to two luminary APRA members were honoured in the Queen's Birthday List this past weekend.
Derek Arana Te Ahi Lardelli has been made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Maori art.
The honour recognises Sir Derek’s achievements and contributions as a moko artist, visual artist, kapa haka performer, orator, composer, graphic designer, researcher, cultural consultant and educationalist.
But while the honour is presented to an individual, Sir Derek said he was receiving it on behalf of his people — that it belonged to the people.
“We have to think about all the people who aren’t with us now — all the people who have made a life commitment and passed on, particularly over the Covid time.”
He felt humbled to accept it for them.
Sir Derek said the Queen’s Birthday honour “acknowledges Maori art as being an important part of who we are as Maori and who we are as creatives”.
Sir Derek described art as “a means of connecting to the soul”
He is a composer, performer and leader of Whangara mai Tawhiti kapa haka group — twice winners of Te Matatini national competition.
He composed the New Zealand Universities rugby team haka and most recently the Poutangata haka for the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC).
His most recognised composition is the All Blacks’ haka Kapa O Pango.
He has served on the Waitangi Tribunal and was a New Zealand Arts Foundation trustee.
Other past honours and awards include a University of Waikato Honorary Doctorate, 2018 Te Tohu Tiketike o Matariki supreme award winner, 2018 Waiata Maori Music Awards Keeper of Traditions award and the 2014 Creative New Zealand Te Waka Toi Tohu Ake award.
He was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Maori art in the 2008 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
And Mr Tom Rainey was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
Rainey is a multi-instrumentalist who worked at the Ara Institute of Canterbury for 28 years, where he was the Head of the Department of Creative Industries from 2012 to 2019.
He was a founding tutor of the Jazz School in 1991 and was Head of the School of Performing Arts from 2008 to 2012. He mentored and taught a number of high profile New Zealand musicians. He had significant influence on the emerging New Zealand music scenes of the 1990s and 2000s. He has collaborated with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra for more than 25 years as a conductor, arranger and performer.
His arrangements have been performed by a number of orchestras around the world, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Mr Rainey is a Trustee of the New Zealand International Jazz and Blues Festival, the Christchurch Jazz Foundation, Chair of the Andromeda Arts Trust, and Treasurer of the Christchurch School of Music Council.